Etymology
1. c.1225, "loud outcry, clamor, shouting," from O.Fr.
noise "uproar, brawl" (in modern Fr. only in phrase
chercher noise "to pick a quarrel"), apparently from L.
nausea "disgust, annoyance, discomfort," lit. "seasickness" (see nausea). Another theory traces the O.Fr. word to L.
noxia "hurting, injury, damage." OED considers that "the sense of the word is against both suggestions," but
nausea could have developed a sense in V.L. of "unpleasant situation, noise, quarrel" (cf. O.Prov.
nauza "noise, quarrel").
2. From Middle English noyse, noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense. Potentially a reduced form of Old French enoiier (“to bother, to disturb”), from Latin inodio (“to make repulsive”) - which would make it a doublet of English annoy (“to bother, to irritate”) and English ennui (“boredom, jadedness, depression”). Compare Piedmontese nojé (“to bother, to annoy”), though this fails to explain the final /z/. Displaced native Old English swēġ. See: Old French '
enoiier', Latin '
inodio', Piemontese '
nojé'.